Messages - Ciogli

In thinking about the Ajencis quote I think that it stings o because when you realize what happened, then you realize that you are the slave of another slave. Which is a kind of metaslavery, you are both ignorant and yet somehow you are even more ignorant than them.

I think a lot of the plot points that were not finalized in this series was because this series was simply the middle volume in a trilogy a trilogies, I have said before that the Aspect-Emperor series is the proverbial cliffhanger volume of the series, where the heroes fall off the edge of a cliff and we hold our breath trying to see if they fell over to their deaths. The dragon was fine for me, some people seem to be struck that a dragon would talk of cunny, but he is a child of the Inchoroi, a species of space faring rape aliens that have created the sranc and bashrag that are aroused by violence of all kinds, and I see no reason that a dragon would be all that different. And it was an insult meant to make her afraid, he even said he tasted Emilidis's cunny before and he was a male, so the words made sense in the setting. It seems strange that people who have read the whole series would be nonplussed by a dragon with a dirty mouth.

In preview or the podcast I recently reread TUC, on my first read I tore through it in two days. We had all been waiting for the conclusion tot he story for so long, it was like a favorite meal that I ate far to fast to truly enjoy it. It was much the same after I read the Great Ordeal, I liked but I was not so sure how much, and like that book I would need to reread it to truly appreciate it.

Once again the greatest weakness of this book for me was the crossing of Agongorea and the straits of the cannibal ordeal, it was like a long time friend who gets hooked on heroin, you know how this is going to end but every moment of the descent is agonizing. The moment they spied the horns poking up above the horizon I was like a kid who could see the spires of Disneyland in the distance and from that moment on I wanted Golgotterath. The descent of much loved characters into barbarism unknown before was hard to take, I think the parts removed that dealt with the Mandate would have helped this section, the sight of the Mandati tripping balls and all of them thinking they were Seswatha would have been great. Although the actual cannibal ordeal only lasted about twenty four pages it cast a long shadow across the next hundred pages. I think this section would have felt better balanced with more of Akka and Mimara cut in, this was the first book where there were no dreams to add to our knowledge. I think what made people think the section was so much longer than it really was is that there were no real breaks from the viewpoints. It was not until Kellhus shows up that the narrative starts to change. And the betrayal of Proyas was and still is a mindfuck, he started seeding this betrayal from the beginning of the Ordeal. He had to know crossing Agongorea would be a nightmare no matter the method, if they ate sranc then the Ordeal would be uncontrollable with bloodlust. And if they did not then they would starve and then they would have to turn to cannibalism, Kellhus knew that someone would have to be blamed for the method of crossing the wastes and so he exited stage left before hand and returned after the hard part was done with his hands clean. None asked why he had abandoned them at such a critical time, they were only so happy that he had returned to them in their darkest hour, just like he had planned all along. Something must be eaten.

But the moment they stand before the Unholy Ark till the end of the book was the greatest battle that I have ever read in fiction, only the trail of dogs through seven cities would even come close. The eerie quite of the place as they stand before it and try to decipher the world curse across its gleaming gold skin, it was like a character in a horror movie who knows they are walking into a haunted house and yet they have no idea what to expect. They boasted to empty air and only the crazed impatience of a sranc ruined the surprise, the arrival of Mekeritrig naked talking shit to these weak mortals was great. Then the dropping of the Ciphrang upon them and the rushed start of the battle. I wish Bakker had talked more about the actual setup of Golgoterath from the start of the books, but maybe he did not have names that he was satisfied with until now. Corrunc and Domathuz which flanked Gweriguh the extrinsic gate was a great and terrible sight, and the fact that the first Ordeal had looked upon the same sight two millennia hence was a great tie between the two. Golgoterath was in fact the fortress at the feet of the Ark and not the Ark itself, the Oblitus and the High Cwol guarding the intrinsic gate, this was truly the height of epic fantasy. But for allthat he showed in this battle it shows that he was a master storyteller because now thinking on it seems that most of the Consults strength was not show here. Only the Upright horn was shown and only two places within that, if the Ark was buried in the ground then the vast majority of it remained unseen, Seswatha and Nau Cayuti seemingly snuck through the underground tunnels into the bowels of the place and did not enter the horn itself to steal the Heron Spear. So the Ark remains a mystery still. For all of the death only 80 Nonmen died, a majority of the sorcerers when they maddeningly rushed the Schools, naked and screaming curses to those long dead. So twenty four of the hundred who attacked still lived and seemingly disappeared afterward, and four other Nonmen died besides, the one killed by the Ciphrang, The Tall killed in the High Cwol before the gate, the spearmen atop the High Horn and lastly Mekeritrig. What happened to those Nonmen who released the Ten Yoke Legion ? Unless they were one and the same as the Quya then they remain largely unaccounted for, all those Viri and Erratics that fled Ishteribinth seem to be missing still. For all of the dragons we have heard of we have only seen two and one of those in the Ark, all those others that might have survived are not seen, and a question I had was how do they breed? Are they clones? Or are they sexual reproducers. During PON Aurang laments to himself of how few skinspies that they have left but in the Golden Room there is a hundred sighted, maybe the Consult have perfected a way to reproduce them in numbers.

The Golden Room scene was a more epic reflection of the scene within the Nonmen mansion in PON, where all truths are laid bare. The truth of the Inchoroi and there obscene mission is spoken aloud, what the Ark and what the No-God in fact were. And the truth of the Goad that they called the Inverse Fire, they simply want to save themselves from the Hells of the Afterlife like any sane being would, it reads so much more satisfying than some dark lord cackling in the background about how evil they are for evils sake. The Inchoroi were like sranc designed to be evil and thus damned for this very mission that they have been on for these ten thousand years of misery and woe. They like all other peoples in this series were simply born upon a certain path and they must simply follow that path till its fiery end. This is as true for Kellhus and the Dunyain as any other, a major complaint I have seen voiced is that Kellhus must succeed for any of the series to make sense, but the ultimate failure of Kellhus and the Ordeal are simply a declarative statement about doubt that has been the through line of the entire series. Kellhus has fooled the reader along with the characters of his inevitability, so when he fails it seems wrong somehow, but he was not ever a God or a prophet, only a man, a wondrous man a but a man none the less. As he said he was the most powerful point that this world had ever seen but he still only possessed two hands and was hemmed in by the darkness the same as everyone else. The pact with the Pit was simply his greatest throw of the number sticks, if he suspected the Consult was controlled by his Dunyain brothers then he would need all the help he could acquire and by any means. The fact that Kelmommas who he spared because of his love for Esmi and thus he directly allowed for the advent of System Resumption. The whore of Fate had to have saved that laugh for all of time, Akka thinks he got fucked by Fate but not in comparison to Kellhus. Kellhus is in some ways a most tragic figure, the greatest and most charismatic figure in history that could literally have any woman or man he wanted and he fell in love with a broken woman who never truly loved him back, only a kind of worship, all the while she still loved the man he had stolen her from. Unrequited love from a man who could not love and for a woman who did not love him back, in some ways Akka got his revenge upon him but could never know. That this love drove him to spare the No-God for which he had worked tirelessly for twenty years was a most cruel and wicked choice of Fate.

In summary after rereading the book without my preconceived notions I now love the book, my main problem is still the crossing but even that is now so bad, just now as interesting to me. Sometime in the future I plan to read the Great Ordeal and TUC back to back as one to see what it should have been like. Some years back on the old three seas board Bakker said the TUC in terms or revelations would be like the stripper throwing her G-string across the room, and some have questioned that, but when he said that the last two books were one and all of the revelations about the No-God, the Inchoroi, the Golden Room, the Inverse Fire, the Dunyain and the Nonmen were all in this one book.

And now for some random thoughts, the glossary was once again a highlight to read, the sheer depth of this creation is jaw dropping, Bakker once said the history of the Ancient North is every bit as layered as the three seas was and we only saw a fraction of that in this glossary. The Bronzemen who had 99 forts scattered throughout the eastern Yimaleti were like bronze age scalpers fighting through high mountain passes instead of deep forests. Bakker said some day he planned to write a book or series of books about the First Apocalypse, the Ancient North seems to be every bit as vibrant as the Threes Seas. But once again the Nonman grabbed my attention, I continue to think a series of books about the Cuno-Inchoroi wars would be spectacular, even during the time leading up to Arkfall, Morimhira abdicating the throne of Siol to his younger brother, the doomed loved of Cujara-Cinmoi's parents and there execution by there father and the eventual ascendancy of Cujara-Cinmoi in the shadow of what was to come for them all. Cujara seems like a real dick, an ancient version of Conphas, he was said to be spectacularly beautiful even for the Nonmen and had skills sorcerously and martial to match his immense pride, a boy genius whose pride spelt his peoples ruin. The rivalries with the other mansions when they were living intact things, mortal beings instead of immortal wrecks. The politics between the nine high mansions and there hatred of the Dark Nonmen of Nihrimsul, the sorcery and skill, all in the shadow of what was to come. They even had female sorcerers called the Quyil, Nil' giccas's mother was said to be one of their greatest. The Tall, which seems to be a condition that came on later in life, in the glossary Oirunas is said to be gifted a magical sword after he started to become Tall, so it would seem this condition only started to show itself during adulthood. The Inchoroi created the Bashrag to contend with the Tall but it seems they were like sranc to them in truth, the Tall that guarded the High Cwol was said to be two cubits taller than all of the bashrag in the canal, and that as far as I have found is three feet taller than creatures that were twice a mans height. And the fact that the Holy Deep was filled with them would seem to bode well for their appearance in the No-God series. The sorcerous artifacts which were missing from this series until this last book would seem to be filled with them since all the contrivers seem to be Nonmen or taught by the Nonmen.

This reread has reinvigorated my love for this series, the possibilities for the future are seemingly endless as of this moment.

The one thing that kind of concerns me is the length of the story, if the entirety of the second apocalypse can contained within one book than that is disappointing. The second apocalypse is the true story we have been waiting on this entire time, the story literally starts with the first apocalypse and the remnants of the Kuniuri in Ishual. The first apocalypse took over a decade to run its course, earlier Bakker was talking about how the story mirror each other and so I was hoping the second apocalypse would be as long as the first. I was thinking that the No-God series should be as long as the other two series combined, the PON is the story of the Holy War, the AE is the story of the Great Ordeal, both of these conflicts were little more than a year long. So is was thinking the No-God would be more books than each of the preceding series.

Of course Bakker would be involved, it is his world after all. He would get the ball rolling and approve designs. I used to have transformers figures as a kid, collect enough and you could recreate the battle of Pir Pahal that Akka saw in Cil Aujas complete with Sil and Nin Janjin. Nonman chariots and the Tall, sranc and bashrag, cinderswords, the imagery is there for it.

Since the Nonmen still have a part to play that may be why we did see who survived inside the Weeping mountain, Oirunas was the only Tall seen. But there were more in the Holy Deep, and it seems only the Quya made to Golgotterath in time, maybe the rebirth of the No God will make the erratic themselves like the Inverse Fire made Mek.